


Break the Looking Glass

by BossToaster (ChaoticReactions)



Series: I'll Be There For You (Platonic Week III) [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Campy, Gen, Ghost Hunters, Horror, In a decidedly unusual fashion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 10:07:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12579332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChaoticReactions/pseuds/BossToaster
Summary: Rumors of a new ghost abound at Hogwarts, and Shiro is pulled into a search by the members of his tutoring group.They might just get more than they bargained for.





	Break the Looking Glass

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Unafraid](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9136501) by [buttered_onions](https://archiveofourown.org/users/buttered_onions/pseuds/buttered_onions). 



Shiro hurriedly pushed open the door to the library with his shoulder. His arms were full of notes and papers, haphazardly stacked in what barely qualified as a pile. One piece of parchment in particular flapped in the air as he half-jogged his way over to the group’s usual table.

“Sorry I’m late,” Shiro panted, dropping his unruly bundle onto the table. “Quidditch practice went long. I didn’t bring the notes, so I had to run all the way back to the dorm.”

Flapping a hand at him, Lance rolled his eyes. “You’re like, five minutes late, don’t worry about it.”

“That’s like fifteen minutes late for Shiro, though,” Hunk pointed out. He shot Shiro a crinkle-eyed smile, clearly teasing. “And it’s a whole twenty percent of our study time.”

Shiro pressed his lips thin, because that was exactly what he’d been thinking, and he didn’t want to validate Hunk’s teasing. “I’m still sorry for making you wait.”

“It’s fine. We were talking about more interesting things that tutoring anyway.” Pidge held up a piece of parchment, her quill currently tucked behind her ear. It was slowly dripping ink down her neck. Already, there were several streaks of black disappearing into the collar of her uniform.

Hands on his hips, Shiro arched one brow at Pidge. It was the disapproving look he’d been practicing in the mirror, hoping it would quell these four when they were out of control.

Maybe it hadn’t worked yet, but Shiro was still hopeful.

“And just what’s more important than your school work?” He asked.

Lance raised his hand. “Oh, Quidditch!”

Frowning, Keith crinkled his nose. “No, it isn’t.”

“Actually, I’ll give him that one,” Shiro allowed. He finally sat down and started to re-organize his notes.

Hunk’s chin came up. “I think doing our best is more important than school work.”

Waving the parchment wildly, Pidge shook her head. “You’re all wrong!” She declared.

Shiro winced and cast a silencing charm before the librarian could give them the stink-eye. “Alright, alright, I’ll bite. What’s more important?”

“Science!” Pidge gave him a wide-eyed, toothy grin. “And the application of it to magic.”

Oh, that was a very, very bad start to the session. The application of  _ ‘Science!’ _ usually meant trouble, no matter which of the Holt siblings started it.

Scrubbing over his face, Shiro took a deep breath. “Can we apply science to the Potions test I know you have at the end of the week?”

Lance snorted. “You can apply science to anything, Shiro,” he declared, voice nasal. He mimed pushing a pair of glasses up his nose.

“Do you not want to go on my science expedition?” Pidge demanded, one brow up.

Immediately, Lance held up his hand. “No, no, I want to go! I take it back. And that’s what you always say!”

An expedition, now. This got worse and worse. “Alright,” Shiro sighed. “I’ll bite. What’s going on?”

“There’s a new ghost,” Keith reported flatly. “Or, at least, that’s what people are saying.”

Hunk nodded, biting on his bottom lip. “All the second years are talking about it. Apparently there’s something in the dungeon. And these three want to go and look for it.”

A new ghost? Did that even happen? In his five years at Hogwarts, Shiro hadn’t heard of such a thing. Well, obviously, ghosts had to get to the school somehow. But the youngest of them was Nick over at Gryffindor, at a spry 300-some (or whatever, something like that). So clearly it didn’t happen all that often.

“Who’s saying this?” Shiro asked, head tilted. “No one’s said anything about it at the Prefect meetings.”

Pidge held up a finger, eyes bright. “It’s a cover-up!”

“Or there’s no ghost.”

Shaking his head, Lance pulled the sheet out of Pidge’s fingers and held it out. “No way! I have a friend in Ravenclaw who says that one of the Sixth Years ran into it in the dungeons. It’s all here!”

“And at least  _ three _ people have seen it in Slytherin!” Pidge agreed, her head bobbing up and down. “We wrote all of it down.”

Taking the sheet dubiously, Shiro started to read it over. The Ravenclaw had gone to return borrowed supplementary books from Professor Harris and had been stalked by a large, shadowy figure they described as furred and horned. A Slytherin Fifth Year claimed they’d been chasing their cat, which had been scared by a terrible screeching noise and something with long, spindly hands. A Seventh Year had gone for a walk between revisions and heard echoing moans and whispers of heart attacks and never leaving the school.

“None of this matches up,” he pointed out, handing it back over. “Hogwarts is a strange old castle. People hear weird stuff all the time. Especially in the dungeons.”

Keith’s brow furrowed as he shook his head. “No, there’s one thing in common. The same place. A part of the dungeon past Harris’ office.”

“There used to be some old classrooms back there, but they stopped using them once they stopped teaching sympathetic magic,” Pidge reported.

Brows up, Shiro blinked at her. “How’d you know that?”

Pidge smirked. “It’s in  _ Hogwarts: A History.” _

“She made us help her look it up,” Hunk muttered darkly.

The smug look dropped. “I didn’t make you do anything!”

“I don’t want anything to do with this ghost!” Hunk shot back.

Keith frowned. “You don’t have a problem with the Friar.”

Shrugging, Hunk crossed his arm. “That’s different. The Friar is nice, and he doesn’t hide out in creepy dungeons, and he said he’d teach me how to brew my own beer one day.”

Shiro froze. “He did?”

Realizing what he’d just said (in front of one of the Hufflepuff prefects, no less), Hunk went bright red. “No?”

Oh, Shiro was going to have to tell someone about that. Maybe he’d just pass it along to Allura, and she could tell her father or Professor Coran.

“There’s no new ghost, Hunk,” Shiro sighed, giving up on that problem for now.

Pidge crossed her arms. “You don’t know. You’re dismissing perfectly good evidence out of hand.”

“Would this evidence pass in front of a board of peers?” Shiro shot back, because it usually shut Matt up.

Scowling, Pidge looked away.

Lance leaned forward, grin widening. “If you think so, then come check it out with us. Tonight.”

“We have curfew,” Hunk pointed out, but he was already drooping. He knew perfectly well that wouldn’t stop the others.

“Not if we have a prefect with us,” Keith said, shrugging. “I don’t know either way, but it’s worth looking into, right?”

Shiro’s brows rose. “And why shouldn’t I just pass this on to the Head Boy or Head Girl and be done with it?”

Immediately, Pidge’s mouth fell open. “And let them take the credit?”

“And let them have all the fun?” Lance demanded.

Keith frowned. “Then we won’t get to be out after curfew,” he said, just slightly sulky.

All three of them looked at Hunk. He glanced between them, then dropped his head to the table. “Oh, Merlin,” he moaned. “Fine.”

All of those pleading gazes locked onto Shiro.

In response, he crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, unmoved. “I’m not feeling very persuaded.”

Lance’s eyes went wide in pure incomprehension. “Why not? It’ll be exciting, Shiro!”

But Pidge’s lips thinned. “No fights for a week,” she offered.

And there was the Slytherin. Maybe under the table deals weren’t the nicest thing to do, but Shiro wasn’t going to pass up some peace and quiet for once. “Mmm. Better.”

“No fights for two weeks,” Keith offered. He raised his eyebrows pointedly at Lance. It earned him a scowl and an angry blush, but Lance gave a jerky nod.

“Even warmer.”

Hunk rested his head on his jaw. “I’m not helping. I’m not contributing to my own ghost-death.”

“Traitor,” Lance said, jabbing him playfully on the arm.

Finally, Shiro held up his hand. “Two weeks of no fighting, a month of all your essays being on time without my reminders, and you, Pidge, have to tell Matt exactly what we were doing and why.”

That made Pidge freeze, eyes wide and mouth hanging open.

Shiro stared her down, unmoved. If this was going to be a waste of his time in the middle of the night, then they had better be prepared to back it up. Not to mention that ‘chasing down fake ghosts’ was definitely not on the approved list of prefect duties.

Besides, well… Shiro was no Gryffindor, but he wasn’t a coward. He was no Ravenclaw, but he wasn’t immune to curiosity. They’d go down, look around, cast a couple of basic detection spells, then everyone would go back to their dorms and this would all be a distant memory.

“Fine!” Pidge spat out, jaw set unhappily. “But if we’re right, you have to tell Matt  _ and _ Headmaster Altea everything.”

Fair enough. Shiro held out his right hand, warm and steady. Pidge took it, gripping as hard as she could manage, and then shook on it.

Lance let out a gleeful whoop that made Shiro wish he’d already cast a silencing charm. “Who ya gunna call?”

Pausing, Shiro frowned. “Where did you hear that?”

“One of the sixth years said it was the catchphrase of a group of ghost hunters. Pretty cool, right?” He beamed, chest puffed out. “If we’re going ghost hunting, we should get to say it too.”

That-

No. That was above Shiro’s pay grade. If Lance wanted to take the word of random sixth years, he’d learn the consequences. A glance at Hunk earned him a sly smile, proving he’d come to a similar conclusion.

“Now, if you’re all done wasting time-”

“Probably not,” Keith admitted.

Shiro ignored that completely. “Let’s get started. I think you all have Potions homework you promised me you’d start before today.”

There was a series of groans as the four of them obligingly pulled out their textbooks.

They had important things to do today, like Potions essays and Transfiguration practice. For the moment, Shiro put any thoughts of ghosts completely out of his mind.

***

This had been a stupid idea.

Shiro held his wand out in front of him, lit with a powerful  _ lumos _ , and wished he’d just nipped this in the bud like he should have.

The dungeons were creepy enough during the middle of the day. They had a tendency to catch footsteps and make them echo, until it was impossible to tell if someone was following or not. They were dank, near dripping with moisture the farther they got under the Black Lake, giving the whole area an awful chill.

There was a reason the dungeon was the number one breeding ground of ridiculous spooky stories in Hogwarts.

“Where did you say this classroom was?” Shiro asked, holding his wand up higher. It only illuminated about fifteen feet in front of them- the rest was inky, stubborn darkness.

Pidge took a deep breath, gripping the old Holt photo camera in her hands. At tutoring she’d been all gleeful confidence, but now there was a slight shake to her voice. “Nearby. It’s hard to tell in the dark. Normally there are more torches.”

“Normally, you’re not supposed to be out this late.”

Lance pushed passed Shiro, the stark light of his spell making his face look more gaunt and his eyes brighter. “It’s gotta be close. I’ve never been this far down this way.” He grinned, but it was tense around the edges.

“No one is, really,” Keith said. Of all of them, he seemed the calmest. “No one seems to remember when it was last in use. I asked around.” His lips turned down at that, and his shoulders tightened.

Likely, he’d contacted some of the older pureblood family members that still talked to him. Usually, Keith avoided them like they were contagious, but he wasn’t above exploiting their knowledge for a cause.

Maybe he was more invested in this then he’d let them thi-

Hands grabbed onto the back of Shiro’s robes.

Yelping, Shiro jolted in place, then swung around, arm still extended.

Hunk ducked back away, eyes watery and hands held up. “Sorry! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to- I just wanted to keep close to you, since you’re a fifth year and you know a lot more spells that protect us if you need to and I figured we should stick together in case the ghost tries to get us and-”

Sighing, Shiro dropped his arm. “You’re fine,” he interrupted, shaking his head. “Honestly, you are. There’s been no sign of a ghost yet-”

“We’re not even at the classroom!” Pidge objected, scowling. “Don’t say you won yet.”

Shiro glared pointedly at her until she backed off, then turned to Hunk. “There’s no sign of a ghost. But even if they were, they can’t hurt you. They’re just ghosts.”

Swallowing, Hunk fiddled with the edges of his sleeves. “Peeves can hurt us.”

“Peeves can be a pest, but even he can’t really hurt you,” Lance pointed out. He patted Hunk comfortingly on the shoulder. “And that’s different. Poltergeists and ghosts aren’t the same beings at all.”

Hunk nodded and wiped over his eyes. “I know. I read in the big index book in the library.”

“Besides, even if all that was true, we can fight it off,” Keith said. “We just learned the disarming charm, and it sends everyone flying.”

“Does that work on ghosts?” Hunk bit his bottom lip, but he did relax just a touch.

Keith shrugged. “Why not?”

“If there’s a ghost here, which there isn’t, and if it tries to attack you, which it won’t, it’ll have to go through me. And I promise I can handle one ghost.”

Or, at least, Shiro really hoped so.

Pidge offered a smile. “And between the two of us, you think we can’t outsmart some silly ghost?”

Finally, Hunk nodded. “I guess. Yeah. You’re right. Can we not do this for too long, though?”

“Half an hour more,” Pidge offered. “Long enough to get there and look around. That okay?”

A small groan left Hunk, but he nodded. “Thirty minutes. Nothing more.”

“And then you’ll all go to bed, confident there’s nothing lurking around here,” Shiro agreed. He pointed his wand forward again-

Just as there was a screeching noise, echoed from the hallway ahead.

All five of them froze in place until it ended.

“Has it been half an hour yet?” Hunk asked, voice strangled.

Lance swallowed, all his previous confidence evaporating. He reached out and grabbed onto Hunk’s arm. “Um. Not quite. But close.”

“That sounded like metal,” Keith mused. “Like scraping silverware against itself.”

“No, it sounded like a creature.” Pidge’s eyes brightened with a new, feverish light. “Maybe it’s not a ghost. Maybe it’s an undiscovered animal!”

Shiro frowned. “In Hogwarts, of all places?”

_ “Experimental breeding!” _

“Wasn’t Salazar Slytherin supposed to have been breeding all sorts of weird stuff in his secret chamber?” Lance pointed out, a tremor slipping into his voice.

Shiro frowned, swallowing hard. “There used to be classrooms here, so there’s no way his secret chamber was down this hall.”

“It’s not a creature,” Keith insisted. “It was metal!”

“It was definitely an animal,” Pidge shot back. “Right, guys?”

Hunk swallowed hard. “It didn’t sound anything but scary to me,” he admitted.

“Maybe it was metal?” Lance straightened slightly. “Maybe someone just has a project down here.”

Biting on is bottom lip, Shiro winced and refused to admit to sounded like a scream to him. Who could even tell, in this echoing, awful area?

Pidge scowled, crossing her arms. “Well there’s only one way to find out.”

“Right.” With that, Keith started down the hall, nearly disappearing into the dark gloom ahead.

Shiro scrambled after him, clamping his hand on his shoulder. “Stay with us until we know what that was, okay? It’s hard to keep track of you all in the daylight. There’s all sorts of weird stuff to hurt yourself on down here.”

Scowling back, Keith bucked his shoulder, but Shiro didn’t let go. “I’m not a little kid. We’re second years, we can handle ourselves.”

“Sure,” Shiro said, because that argument could only go badly. “But numbers are smarter anyway. And I’m the Prefect, and if you get away from me and someone else finds you? I can’t help you.”

Keith finally gave a jerky nod. “Let’s go then.”

Pidge followed immediately. Behind her, Hunk visibly hesitated. “Twenty five minutes more,” he murmured, mostly to himself. Then he trudged after them, each step slow and reluctant to try to time them out, while Lance continued to cling.

It only took a few seconds of walking to come across a door. It was just barely cracked open, the inside totally dark.

“This is it,” Pidge murmured. She fingered the old photo camera and bit her bottom lip. “We’ll look around and take a few pictures. If it’s a creature, we’ll know what it is.”

“And if it’s someone making this their personal project space, we’ll know that too,” Keith whispered back. But his eyes flickered to Shiro, nervous for the first time. “But maybe we should try and see inside first before we step inside.”

Stomach twisting, Shiro took a step forward. He held out one arm like his mum making sure he didn’t jerk forward when she stopped the car fast, making sure they all stayed behind them, but none of them moved forward so much as an inch to follow him.

Well, good.

Thankfully, Shiro’s hand stayed steady as he raised it, trying to see past the crack in the door. But not enough of the light got through the humid gloom, so instead he raised it to the small, hazy window on the front of the door.

There was the round shaped head, with curved horns on the top.

Shiro jolted back immediately, heart pounding and throat tightening up around a scream.

But when he blinked, it was gone.

“What is it?” Pidge asked, voice pitched so high it was hard to understand her words. “Was it a ghost?”

“Was it a monster?” Lance asked, equally panicked.

Shiro blinked several more times. Now, he couldn’t see through the glass at all - it was all an opaque off-white.

He’d imagined it. That had been one of the other stories, and he’d just saw what he was afraid of.

At least, Shiro hoped so.

“Nothing. I just startled myself.” He straightened up. “One quick look around.” For the sake of two weeks of peace, and a month of essays without having to complain at them, and because there was no stupid ghost down here.

Hunk’s bottom lip shook. “Just one,” he agreed. “Then the half an hour is up.”

“It hasn’t even been fifteen minutes,” Keith said.

“Shut up, Keith, no it hasn’t!” Lance hissed back, bristling like a startled cat.

“Just say you don’t want to-”

Shiro groaned. “Don’t. Please. One look. One minute. Long enough for a couple of pictures and that’s it.”

Nodding, Pidge stepped over to the door. “I’ll push it in, and then you put your wand inside,” she whispered. “Okay?”

It was a sound enough plan, and it kept them out of the way. So Shiro nodded and steeled himself. He wasn’t going to get scared over a silly sound. They were under the lake, right? So all sorts of weird noises could happen. Really.

There were  _ no new ghosts. _

“Do it.”

Pidge shoved the door farther in, then scrambled back and held up the camera. Whatever pictures it might take were going to be ruined, because her hands shook.

Ignoring that, Shiro stepped forward.

It was just an empty classroom.

There was a slate on the wall, completely blank, blocked from view only by a single cabinet. It had no teacher’s desk, but there was a chair where one might have been, and several desks strewn about. One was even on its side, covered in dust.

Pointing his wand down, Shiro looked for any signs of life, especially footprints in the grime.

Nothing.

“It’s clear,” he called back.

Pidge immediately came through, already snapping pictures as quickly as she could print them. “No sign of disturbance.”

“So it wasn’t an animal,” Keith agreed, looking around. He moved to the fallen desk and looked inside, then rightened it. “And no one doing experiments.”

Slowly, Hunk and Lance crept in behind everyone else. The lack of anything terrible seemed to be relaxing them both. Dropping his death grip on Hunk’s robe, he hummed. “Okay. I guess this isn’t so scary aft-”

The cabinet burst open, and something massive emerged.

Pidge  _ screamed,  _ but didn’t stop taking pictures. So instead Shiro took hold of her robes and shoved her back. Keith grabbed her next and pulled her farther back, nearly colliding with Hunk and Lance as they all tried to get away from the  _ thing. _

It was huge, a solid 8 feet tall, and the horns just barely avoiding scraping the ceiling. It opened its mouth, revealing gleaming rows of horrible, long teeth, and it raised its long, spindly hands, tipped with razor claws.

And it let out an ear-splitting  _ screech. _

“Run!” Shiro shouted back, gripping his wand harder to keep his hand from shaking.

“Shiro, no!” Keith cried, at the same moment Lance protested, “we can’t!”

Shiro held out his left hand, trying to gesture for them to get the hell  _ away. _

Just as the creature locked eyes on him.

It’s maw opened again, expression twisting with malice. “I… am hungry,” it rasped.

Shiro’s stomach dropped.

It- it could talk?

_ “Stupefy!” _

The spell hit the creature and dissipated harmlessly.

Taking another step forward, it laughed. “Barely more than a Muggle. I will eat the others first. Their magic is stronger.”

No. Shiro wasn’t- he was a Muggleborn but that didn’t make his spells bad, and-

And-

_ “Expelliarmus!” _  He cast again, desperate for anything, so much as a blink, a sign that Shiro was capable of  _ something. _

Nothing

He couldn’t- Shiro wasn’t- they were going to-

Shiro glanced back again, and his stomach dropped as he realized they were all still crowded in the door frame, wands out. “Go!”

Keith shook his head. “We can’t leav- look out!”

Crashing down instinctively, Shiro felt the air whip around his hair as the creature’s spindly hands just barely missed him. He scrambled up, and despite the earlier words, it started to descend on Shiro.

There was a roar and a few steps, then an entire  _ desk _ flew through the air and hit the creature.

Or, it should have. Instead it went right through the beast, like a hand brushing through smoke.

What?

Shiro looked over and saw Hunk standing where the desk had been, panting hard and eyes wild. “Don’t you hurt Shiro!”

_ “Confringo!” _ Keith snarled. His blasting curse did just as much as the desk have, but it was impressive that he’d even been able to cast it.

Why wasn’t their magic working?

Two sets of hands grabbed onto Shiro’s robes, as Lance and Pidge worked together to drag him back through the dust.

Which was undisturbed under the monster.

“Let’s go!” Pidge let out. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, let’s go, I we have to-”

Shiro stood and raised his wand.

_ “Riddikulus!” _

There was a loud crack, and then the creature was suddenly bright purple with yellow spots. A floppy purple sun hat covered the horns, and the claws were tipped with yellow nail polish.

“What- what did you do to it?” Hunk asked.

Pidge took a deep breath. “Oh, it’s-”

“A boggart,” Keith groaned.

Lance raised his wand too.  _ “Riddikulus!” _ The creature was covered in long, silky fur like a cat, still in the same colors Shiro had picked.

When it tried to roar, it let out a meow instead.

Hunk let out a reluctant, almost hysterical, giggle.

Flinching from the noise, the creature turned and slammed back into the cabinet. The doors closed hard behind it.

A boggart. All this for a stinking  _ boggart. _

“What does this mean for our bet?” Pidge asked shakily, fingering her camera. “Since there was a ghost, it just wasn’t a real ghost.”

Shiro swallowed hard. “Call it a draw?”

“Yeah, sounds good.”

***

One trek out of the dungeons several cleaning charms to get off the dust, and a trip to both the Slytherin and Gryffindor common rooms later, Shiro and Hunk made their way to the Hufflepuff den.

“That was the worst idea,” Hunk moaned, leaning against Shiro’s side. From the slow way he was blinking, he was about to drop off in the hallway.

Shiro put a hand between Hunk’s shoulder blades, making sure kept walking. He could levitate Hunk back, but he was feeling pretty exhausted himself. “It was.”

“We shouldn’t let them talk us into this stuff.”

“We really shouldn’t.” Shiro sighed. “But thank you. For what you did with the desk. It was really brave. Strong, too. Did you cast a charm on the desk to make it lighter?”

Hunk paused. “No, I didn’t even think about it.”

Okay, Shiro was going to have to remember not to ever anger Hunk into a real brawl. Second year or not, Hunk might be able to take him down.

“It was pretty cool. I’m sorry you all had to save me. And I don’t think I would have realized what was happening if you hadn’t proved nothing could hit it.”

Smiling softly, Hunk nodded against Shiro’s shoulder. “You saved us first, trying to get us away. You kept going in first and making sure we were safe. You did a good job.”

“Not good enough. If it had been real…”

Hunk wrapped an arm around Shiro. “I’m glad it wasn’t. Just a stupid boggart.”

“Just a stupid boggart.”

Taking a deep breath, Hunk looked up at him. “That’s what you fear, though? What we saw?”

Shiro considered. “The creature? Not usually. But it was what we were all thinking about from the previous stories, so I guess it did what would hit us all.”

“Not that. I mean, that we’d get hurt. That you were barely more than a Muggle.”

Shiro’s stomach dropped. “Of course I was afraid it would hurt you. You’re my friends.”

The half-answer didn’t escape Hunk, even in his current state. Instead he squeezed Shiro tight. “Well, you helped protect us, and you’re one of the best wizards I know. S’why you’re a prefect and why you can tutor us. ‘Cause you’re good at all this.”

Closing his eyes, Shiro nodded. “Yeah. Thanks. Just like you’re one of the smartest, strongest people I know. And I know Matt and Allura.”

Hunk smiled against Shiro’s shoulder. “Thank you.”

Pausing in front of the barrels, Shiro tapped the right one, and then climbed inside the entrance. “Can you make it to your bed alone?”

“Mmm.” Hunk yawned, hard enough that his jaw cracked. “Uh, I think I need a couple of minutes on the couch first.”

That was a bad idea. Getting up was going to be hard. But the soft, warm embrace of the couch was like a siren call, more powerful than any spell.

So Shiro nodded and guided them both over there. “Just a couple. Then off to bed.”

“Kay.” Hunk leaned even more heavily against Shiro’s side, his eyes closed and mouth slack.

In just a minute, his breathing was deep an even.

A minute after that, Shiro’s snoring joined in.


End file.
